The pile of corpses seemed endless, with dead bodies everywhere. From the middle of the mountain to the road down the mountain, and to every place where the refugees passed, there were people who had fallen down and could never get up again.
Even the phenomenon of cannibalism could not prevent such a large number of people from starving to death. When Lin Rui and others' car came down from the mountain, the victims looked back numbly. Suddenly, like dogs seeing meat buns, they all dragged their tired bodies towards them.
"Give me some alms!"
"Please save the child, just give him a piece of bread and a sip of water!"
"I'll give the child to you. She can be a servant or a servant. Just give her a way to make a living..."
There were waves of pleading, and a woman who was so hungry that she had a cloth wrapped around her head, her body was thin, and the flesh on her cheeks was sunken. She tried to throw a little black child who didn't even have the strength to cry into their car.
Lin Rui shouted, "Everyone, pick up your weapons and start fighting! If anyone dares to come close, I'll beat them up, regardless of life or death!"
Lin Changtai, Lin Changhe, and Lin Zicheng, the relatively sturdy father and son, immediately obeyed Lin Rui's instructions and pulled out hoes, pickaxes, kitchen knives, bows and arrows and other weapons from their luggage and pointed them at them.
Especially when Lin Changtai saw someone trying to pull the luggage from the ox cart and the flatbed cart without knowing the consequences, he hit the person's hand with the carrying pole in his hand without mercy.
The thief screamed in pain after being beaten, and staggered back repeatedly, covering his hands. These victims had really been hungry for a long time, and they both staggered as they walked, weak and powerless, and were no match for Lin Changtai and others.
Seeing that they were so stubborn and would not give in to any soft moves, I knew I couldn't get anything good from them, so I could only slowly retreat.
Having fled the famine for many days, he had seen many different kinds of people. These disaster victims had sharp eyes and knew that they could get food from some people and not from others. And it was obvious that Lin Rui and his men were just like them in terms of clothing and appearance. Needless to say, food was precious to ordinary people, so they would definitely not give it to them.
Yu Lanhua held her grandson Douzi in her arms and looked at the little black child who was almost thrown up by the woman. "What a sin! Can't we give them some food?"
"Pa!" Lin Changfa slapped her without hesitation. "Yu Lanhua, I'm warning you, if you dare to talk nonsense again, get out of here. Don't use your bad intentions to drag us down. There are so many poor people here. There are more children dying of starvation than the dead children halfway up the mountain. Can you save them all?"
Yu Lanhua knew she was in the wrong, so she stammered a few times but didn't dare say anything else. In her heart, she was annoyed that her man was so disrespectful to her, even in front of so many people!
She was really confused. Now everyone's eyes were carefully guarding against these disaster victims who were trying to beg for food with green eyes, and no one had any extra attention for her.
"These victims are too weak." Zhao Qing walked up to Lin Rui and said. A large area around their ox carts, flatbed carts and wheelbarrows had been cleared, and the remaining victims did not dare to approach.
Female relatives like Lin Zaozao and Qingqing were protected by the men in the center. They could see that these victims had been hungry for a long time and were really weak. They estimated that they could be easily defeated with the strength of a single woman.
"It's the same for anyone, as they're tired, thirsty and have to eat along the way," said Lin Rui.
Lin Zicheng nodded: "I didn't eat well during those few meals and my legs were weak from hunger, not to mention that they rarely had a full meal."
"Let's go, don't stop, keep going!" The place where they are now is where the crowd of disaster victims is relatively dense. If they don't leave early, who knows what will happen next.
It is not a good thing to be surrounded by a group of hungry disaster victims. Didn’t you see that the other ox carts, horse carts and wheelbarrows passing by hurried away?
Everyone had eaten their fill last night and this morning, so they walked with a strong and powerful step and at a relatively fast pace. They quickly passed through the dense crowd of disaster victims by pulling the ox cart and pushing the cart.
There were so many refugees along the way that those who had just left were densely packed, but the rest of the way was sparse and there was no end in sight. Ahead of us were still hunched-over beggars.
Some people brought their children with them, some traveled alone, some staggered forward, and some walked numbly. They all had confusion on their faces, not knowing where the way out lay.
Lin Rui sighed. Huangmo Pass was the place where he staked everything. It could also be called the last tough bone of the Lin Dynasty. If even Huangmo Pass was gone, this unfortunate and chaotic world would be hopeless, and he would be enslaved by foreigners for a long time.
The path for fleeing the famine was trampled into a wide road by too many people walking on it. There were still many half-weathered dead bodies along the way and in the middle of the road. These corpses were scattered here at random and no one collected them. They were exposed to strong sunlight day by day.
There was no other way. They couldn't even fill their stomachs, so who had the time and energy to waste collecting the bodies? The best the passing drivers could do was to sweep the corpses to the side of the road with their feet and call it a day.
Feng Zhenniang saw a woman on the roadside with a swollen face. She looked like an inflated pig bladder, her skin swollen and transparent, as if it would burst at the slightest touch. She knew it was caused by starvation and cried out, "What a sin!"
Lin Changhe, Lin Changtai, and the others watched the roadside streets littered with starving people, their hearts filled with fear. "Changtai, if it weren't for Lin Rui, even if we managed to survive the massacre at Linjia Village and make it through Lianshan, we would most likely starve to death on the road."
Lin Changxi sighed in his heart, and was proud of his youngest son's ability. Didn't he see the Lin family from the same village, and now they admired his Lin Rui so much that they listened to everything he said!
Lin Rui looked at the tragic scene in front of him and felt heavy in his heart. Is this what Buddhism means when it says that all living beings suffer?
Mu Tou and Niu Niu looked at the children of their own age who were as hungry as sticks. When they looked at them, there was envy in their numb eyes.
Mu Tou knew that because of his uncle, the Lin family had never been hungry during the journey. The worst they had eaten was porridge, but his mother and grandmother would put a lot of dried wild vegetables in it when cooking, so they could fill their stomachs.
How could they be like them? They would pounce on the weeds and roots on the ground and pull them out to eat as if they were treasures. The weeds and roots were previously just food for the dozen or so wild boars they raised, and it was very difficult for people living at the foot of the mountain to even eat these things.
There was almost no grass where the victims walked. The bark on the trees, the grass on the ground, and a plant called ground soft were all boiled and eaten by the passing victims with a little water. They didn't know where they got the water from, but it was extremely turbid and there were some plankton in the water. Half of the food they ate was mud.
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